With nothing else to offer but a glimpse of the sky, Kisa Ritah Lydia now director of Jonam Trekkers Safaris, a then-First Year student of Tourism at Makerere University could not hold her tears down as visitors matched out of the eclipse city in 2013 with no fun stories to tell.
Having not had any other activities to engage in or even prolong their stay, Kisa convinced herself of the need to change the narrative, dedicating her Final Year Project to her village in Pakwach.
With barely a hand full of resources, Kisa started looking for sights and activities while engaging with different leaders, traditional custodianships, and communities to forge different ways of engaging more tourists if they ever found their way back to visit the city
sights including Albert Nile, Emin Pasha, Gordon Hills in Moyo, Alikua Pyramids in Maracha, and the famous Murchison Falls.
In 2017, Kisa together with her partners found the Jonam Trekkers Safaris, a Senior Tourism Consultants company, however, like the many
start-ups in Uganda (7/10 jobs lost according to the ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities in July 2020), in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic, Kisa and her company had not much to offer but instead decided to put operations on hold
In February 2020, while domestic tourism was taking off, Kisa decided to revamp her consultancy company and provide the much-needed support to her local community with the only hope of providing that ever-lasting solution in West Nile.
“Having experienced a lot of wrangles between Uganda wildlife authority and the locals since poaching was seen as the only alternative source for income, I realized that we can use tourism as a tool for social-economic development, cultural and environmental conservation and that’s when the idea of tourism for Pakwach community development was born,” Kisa said
Adding that with the project at hand they were looking at developing the existing undeveloped potential tourism sights into a viable tourism destination, training the community to come and work within thus promoting cultural conservation
But just like Kisa, a challenge organized by the Aga Khan Foundation, Young Uganda Tourism Operators (YUTO) in partnership with the European Union (EU) and Tours Guide Forum Uganda (TGFU) came in handy for the young tourism operators with a recovery fund of over Shs150 million was handled to over four businesses from West Nile but also targeting and the central
Companies including DESANDER Agro Farm won Shs 7 million, Tech for Tourism Shs 7.4 million, Angara Coffee shop Shs 9 million, and Shs 15 million Jonam Trekkers
Eliot Junior Mugisha, team leader of YUTO, noted the innovation challenge was the first of its own kind with a micro-grant from the Aga Khan
Foundation targeting innovators to grow their ventures post-Covid 19 but also encourage domestic tourism and phase out seasonal tourism
A total of 15 startup companies from a 30 that was long-listed to a 20 shortlisted were awarded ranging from Shs 5 million to Shs 15 million
with an expectation of an increase from3.3% Global GDP
Mugisha noted that being a company that looks out for the interests of tour companies they need to find some options for the over 57 members
of their association and company limited since most of them had eaten up their saving capital during the pandemic thus forming a partnership
with the Aga Khan Foundation
In this, he said well as they were indirectly supported by the government, through initiatives such as infrastructure development, it
was still not enough to keep the tourism industry on the wheels and thus suggested more direct approaches such as soft loans that
could be accessed by the young operators to boost their operations
“Maybe where it’s still lacking is that they bring up projects like emyooga and Parish Model to support the youth but unfortunately
sectors like tourism are not considered you find that they’re focusing more on agriculture and yet tourism employs a lot of youth,” Mugisha said
Adding that he would explore the government planners and policymakers to start thinking about how to support youths directly in tourism
but also cautioning all winners against using the funds intentionally as this will be the basis to acquire more funds for the many youths
out there.
Sembajo Romano, the Innovation manager of Aga Khan, said that innovation was a huge commitment that called for a lot but mostly to pick up lessons and make the ideas gathered were complimented and made realistic
He noted that the project started last year securing funds from the EU to mainly implement community resilience programs zeroing to the
an institution that mostly targets vulnerable groups and also supports Small Medium Enterprises hence targeting the tourism sector but
however, looking forward to the proper utilization of the funds so as to pilot more projects.
James Mwere, Senior Tourism Officer Busoga Kingdom and chairman of TGFU noted that this initiative has not only provided their members
with funds but also resources like digital skills, business communication, and marketing through the different training they attended at Kyambogo
Present were representatives from the UNDP Ejolu Innocent and Pascqa Lorna Abur who also pledged their continued support to the tour
operators.